Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
An inertial measurement unit (IMU) is an electronic device that measures and reports on a velocity and orientation of an apparatus or a vehicle using a combination of accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers. Recently, inertial navigation systems (INSs) have been widely used for estimating the motion of vehicles moving in a three dimensional (3-D) space, such as airplanes and automobiles, for example. An important element of most INSs is an IMU configured to measure linear accelerations and rotational velocities, which enable the INS to track the position and velocity of the corresponding vehicle. However, a major disadvantage of using IMUs for navigation or tracking purposes is that they typically suffer from accumulated error. This error accumulation leads to a drift in the inertial measurements provided by the IMU, which translates into an ever-increasing gap between the estimated location of the vehicle and its actual location.
Therefore, there exists a need for a system, using an IMU, which mitigates the above-discussed the measurement drift issues, thereby enabling a more accurate determination of inertial displacements of the associated apparatus or vehicle.